Our Accompanist

Rachel Fright

The Chorus was delighted to welcome Rachel Fright as our new accompanist in October 2017. Rachel enjoys accompanying choirs, a passion which started as she played for the Royal Northern College of Music Symphony Chorus and Chamber Choir in preparation for their performance of Penderecki’s Seventh Symphony at the Bridgewater Hall in June 2015. Since then, she has worked for the Hallé Youth Training Choir, Eton Choral Courses, Rossendale Ladies Choir, and Irlam Male Voice Choir.

Rachel Fright

Following her performance as a Leeds Lieder Young Artist 2018, Rachel was awarded the Hester Dickson Duo Prize with duo partner Ted Black (tenor) to study at Oxenfoord International Summer School with Malcolm Martineau. In the same year, Rachel was a finalist in the Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition and the British Art-Song competition as part of the London Song Festival. Rachel performs regularly across the UK and has been featured on BBC Radio 3. She is also a musician for Live Music Now, deputy tutor at Yorkshire Young Musicians and accompanist to King Edward Music Society, Macclesfield.

Rachel is a recent alumna of the Oxford Lieder Festival Mastercourse, where she received tuition from Roger Vignoles and Imogen Cooper. Previously, she studied with scholarships to Pembroke College, Oxford and the Royal Northern College of Music, where she was taught by Stephen Savage, David Jones and Julius Drake. During her studies, she was supported by the Helen Mackaness Award and won several prizes for accompaniment; the Stella Bradshaw Memorial Award, the Frost/Brownson Award for Accompaniment, the Clifton Helliwell Memorial Award, the Brodsky Prize, the Alexander Young Prize and the James Martin Oncken Song prize. She is currently a Junior Fellow in Accompaniment at the RNCM.

Thank you to everyone from around the world for watching Jonathan's Town Hall Organ Concert today from the stunning Rochdale Town Hall. @RochdaleCouncil You can watch again here: https://youtu.be/0bEnrPci2tM

Sheffielders! I've come across a couple of nice ways to support other Sheffielders at the moment... face masks made by a local maker and sold by a local business, with 50% of profits going to the Samaritans https://sheffieldmakershuntersbar.com/collections/idle-sew-and-sew-face-masks #sheffield #sheffieldissuper

‘What has happened, in the midst of the tragedy & uncertainty of recent weeks, is a classic case of correlation being mistaken for causation; of hastily drawn opinions becoming established fact; of an industry being silenced on a false premise.’ https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/5-june/comment/opinion/it-is-time-to-sing-again

We are a living musical tradition that is almost 1,000 years old & proud to be part of the #EnglishChoralTradition. We should be hopeful for its future, as Psalm 46 reminds us, but prepared to positively and proactively protect it for generations to come
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sing-it-out-will-no-one-in-government-stand-up-for-british-choirs-7nb28sl0q